Visions of the Crow (Dreams, Book 1)

Written by Wanda John-Kehewin

Illustrated by nicole marie burton

Lettering by Kielamel Sibal

HighWater Press (Portage & Main)

978-1-774920459

80 pp.

Ages 12+

April 2023 

Damon Quinn is a teen who is burdened with challenges that are not of his doing. His mother, Marnie, drinks and doesn't always ensure there's food in the house. At school, he's tormented by a bully Marcus who thinks it's clever to call him an Indian in the cupboard. And there's a crow that seems to be watching him. Damon meets Journey who comes to his defense, saying they should stick together even if he isn't fully Indigenous. When she calls him the Métis Crow Whisperer, he decides to ask his mother about his heritage.

From Visions of the Crow by Wanda John-Kehewin, illus. by nicole marie burton

Though Marnie has always been reluctant to talk about her family and Damon's, and she suggests he's better off without them, she reveals that she is Cree from Alberta, and his father was Métis. When she got pregnant at 17, she left her dysfunctional family on the reserve and she and his father moved to Vancouver. When Damon was four, his dad left to return to the reserve and made a new family with another woman.

From Visions of the Crow by Wanda John-Kehewin, illus. by nicole marie burton

Marnie recognizes that "sometimes when you run from things you run too far the other way" (pg. 21) and that maybe it would be beneficial for Damon to talk to someone. She suggests that this might be especially important to him after he has several visions that he doesn't understand, some when he's sleeping, others when he's awake, that place him in the time of his ancestors. Perhaps it's as he's been told, that the crow is a messenger from his ancestors that they are waiting to help him. 

 

Damon meets with a counsellor named Craig Ben Bolton who helps Damon see the meaning in his visions while also appearing in them. Damon sees his ancestors debating the signing of Treaty 6, juggling whether to starve or lose their land. He meets his great uncle who instructs him in honouring the drum. He witnesses the pain of his great-great-grandmother as a child at residential school. And while he learns about his family's past and Marnie becomes more forthcoming of her own history, Damon discovers the impact of intergenerational (a.k.a. transgenerational or historical) trauma on his mother and now him.

This trauma flows through the bloodlines and into you, Damon. (pg. 63)

From Visions of the Crow by Wanda John-Kehewin, illus. by nicole marie burton

Visions of the Crow is a powerful graphic novel of how the past is never in the past completely. Its impact can be far-reaching whether because of multigenerational trauma or through the learning of important lessons or passing on of cultural traditions or by framing who we are as individuals. And with visions that take him into the past experiences of his ancestors, Damon draws knowledge which can lead to healing and to growth for both Damon and his mother. As such, author Wanda John-Kehewin has made Visions of the Crow a story of family, albeit one that can go back generations and into the future. 

 

There is much darkness in Visions of the Crow and graphic artist nicole marie burton gives that shadow quality to their illustrations with their choice of palette and expressive characters that feel so much. There is much to feel in the story and art of Visions of the Crow and nicole marie burton's art takes us from a tenuous home situation to bullying at school and from anger at the unknown to the delicacy that comes from enlightenment, all while taking the reader from Damon's contemporary life into the past with ease.

 

Visions of the Crow is just the first book in this new graphic novel series–Damon's story continues in the second book, Visions from the Fire–and I anticipate more learning and healing to come for Damon and his family. Maybe it will come through surreal visions again or maybe through very real connection with living family but, whatever way Wanda John-Kehewin decides to take Damon's story, it will be forward.